South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda during a press conference in Seoul on October 19, 2011.

“South Korea shares the closest relationship with Japan historically and in various areas such as economy and culture,” Tokyo said Tuesday.

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At first glance, the sentence appears similar to what was in last year’s white paper, a bulky document on Japan’s defense strategy that gets updated every year. But the change is quite significant given the complicated feelings the people of the two countries have toward other, often a source of diplomatic friction. Last year, Korea was only “one of the closest.” This year, it’s the one and only. (A defense ministry spokesman wasn’t immediately able to give a reason for the change).

Tokyo’s friendly gesture has failed to draw any warm and fuzzy response from Seoul. Rather, it was hit immediately by a sharply-worded rebuke, as South Korea focused on another short sentence in the white paper, one that has remained the same for several years in a row.

“For our country, there exist unresolved territorial issues over the Northern Territories and Takeshima that are our nation’s unique land,” the white paper said, referring to islands that are also claimed by Russia and South Korea, respectively. The tiny island that Japan calls Takeshima is known as Dokdo to the Koreans, and the Liancourt Rocks to some Westerners. It lies in the waters between the two nations, known as the Sea of Japan in Japan and the East Sea in South Korea.

“The Government of the Republic of Korea once again makes clear the plain fact that Dokdo is an indigenous territory of the ROK over which it exercises full territorial sovereignty, and that it will not tolerate any unjust claim of Japan to the territory,” said a spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs and trade.

Tuesday’s rhetorical broadside underscores the difficult challenges the two nations continue to face over long-standing historical issues, even as their economic and cultural ties grow closer every year. At the same time, as the white paper points out, the needs for the two nations to coordinate their diplomatic and national security efforts are only growing. China’s rapid growth creates new stress amid East Asia’s geopolitical landscape. North Korea’s nuclear and weapons development, Japan says, remains a huge threat for everyone in the region.